Novelis, the global leader in aluminum rolling and recycling, broke ground for a new aluminum automotive sheet finishing line at its Nachterstedt, Germany, facility. The €62-million (US$85-million) expansion is in response to the steadily growing demand for aluminum automotive sheet for light-weight vehicle structures and body panels. The new line will add 120,000 metric tons of annual capacity to the Nachterstedt plant’s automotive output.

In addition to this new line in Nachterstedt, the company will open a greenfield automotive line in Changzhou, China later this year, and is launching construction of a third automotive line at its plant in Oswego, NY, complementing the two lines commissioned there in 2013. When all of the new lines are commissioned in late 2015, Novelis’ global automotive sheet capacity will reach approximately 900,000 tons per year, a three-fold increase from just a year ago.

Novelis expects demand for aluminum automotive sheet in Europe to increase by an average of 15% per year over the next five years as carmakers focus on strategies to improve vehicle fuel efficiency and reduce CO2 emissions.

The expansion, which is scheduled to come on line in the second half of 2015, will create up to 120 new jobs and boost Novelis’ annual automotive production capacity for aluminum sheet in Europe to well over 350,000 metric tons.

The new production line will make use of the existing infrastructure, specialized staff and logistics solutions. In addition to existing automotive capacity at the Nachterstedt plant, Novelis also produces automotive sheet at its Sierre, Switzerland, and Goettingen, Germany, plants.

This investment, coupled with the site’s start-up this summer of the world’s largest aluminum recycling facility, will further the ongoing development of the company’s automotive closed-loop business model. Today, as much as 50% of automotive sheet sold to automakers is left over after a manufacturing plant stamps out automotive parts. The company is working closely with its customers to return this material directly back to Novelis for recycling, streamlining the materials supply chain while reducing the total carbon footprint of the entire automotive production cycle.

Novelis aluminum can be found in more than 180 different vehicle models produced by leading automakers around the globe.

How did they get the Co. to open in New York, one of the highest taxed, slowest growth non-manufacturing polities in the country, where electricity costs are no favor? Must be the ten year corporate tax exemption passed by Albany -- but what happens when the ten years end?